Cash-strapped spouses who want to split from their well-off other halves could find themselves seriously out of pocket because of impending changes to the availability of legal aid.

Sir Nicholas Wall, the most senior family judge in England and Wales, is predicting "a substantial increase" in the numbers of people ending up in the family courts without lawyers or any proper advice as a result of proposals included in the legal aid, punishment and sentencing of offenders bill. It is set to come into force in April 2013.